Several illegal immigrants were arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents at a checkpoint established along a New Hampshire interstate this week.
The Nashua Patch reported that five immigrants from Brazil, China, Ecuador, El Salvador and Mexico were detained and are set to be deported.
{mosads}The outlet reported that this is the third immigration checkpoint held in New Hampshire in the last year.
This one was held in Woodstock along Interstate 93, approximately 100 miles from the U.S.-Canada border.
Seventeen people were arrested at another checkpoint last month, The Boston Globe reported.
“Checkpoint operations are a critical enforcement tool for the enforcement of our immigration laws and are a part of our defense in depth strategy,” CBP agent Robert Garcia said in a statement.
“In addition to technology, manpower and intelligence, checkpoints help to deny access to major routes of egress away from the border and into our communities in the interior of the U.S.,” Garcia added.
Justin O’Donnell, a Libertarian candidate running for Congress in New Hampshire’s 2nd District, posted a video on Sunday of driving through the checkpoint on Interstate 93.
O’Donnell refuses to answer the border patrol agents’ questions about his citizenship because he said the checkpoint was “nowhere near” the Canadian border.
He was instructed to pull over and wait until he was willing to answer the questions.
When he said he was born in Boston, he was allowed to drive away.
“They seemed to be very upset the we made them justify their existence,” O’Donnell said in the video.
“I feel that having to be asked that question at a warrantless checkpoint seems like a violation of my Fifth Amendment rights,” he added.
Agents also seized marijuana and marijuana products from motorists, The Patch reported.
Several people faced charges for drug possession after being stopped at immigration checkpoints last year.
A New Hampshire state judge, however, threw out the arrests in May and ruled they were unconstitutional under state and federal law, The New York Times reported.
CBP agents held a similar checkpoint in Maine on Wednesday, also questioning drivers about their citizenship status.